In conventional usage, '''boredom''', '''ennui''', or '''tedium''' is an [[emotion]]alandcharacterized occasionally [[psychology|psychological]] state experienced when an individual is left withoutby anythingdisinterest in particularone's to dosurrounding, isoften listlesscaused and dissatisfied due toby a lack of occupationdistracts or excitement, is not interestedoccupations in theirthe surroundings,mean or feels that a day or period is dull or tedioustime. It is also understood by scholars as a modern phenomenon which has a cultural dimension.Although, "There is no universally accepted definition of boredom. But whatever it is, researchers argue, it is not simply another name for [[Depression (mood)|depression]] or [[apathy]]. It seems to be a specific mental state that people find unpleasant—a lack of stimulation that leaves them craving relief, with a host of behavioral, medical and social consequences."<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-boredom-is-anything-but-boring/|title=Why Boredom Is Anything but Boring|first=Maggie|last=Koerth-Baker|journal=Nature|year=2016|volume=529|issue=7585|pages=146–148|doi=10.1038/529146a|pmid=26762441|bibcode=2016Natur.529..146K|access-date=28 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608101457/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-boredom-is-anything-but-boring/|archive-date=8 June 2017|doi-access=free}}</ref> According to BBC News, boredom "...can be a dangerous and disruptive state of mind that damages your health"; yet research "...suggest[s] that without boredom we couldn't achieve our creative feats."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141218-why-boredom-is-good-for-you|title=Psychology: Why boredom is bad... and good for you|first=David|last=Robson|website=bbc.com|access-date=28 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824121704/http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141218-why-boredom-is-good-for-you|archive-date=24 August 2017}}</ref>
In ''Experience Without Qualities: Boredom and Modernity'', Elizabeth Goodstein traces the modern discourse on boredom through literary, philosophical, and sociological texts to find that as "a discursively articulated phenomenon...boredom is at once objective and subjective, emotion and intellectualization—not just a response to the modern world, but also a historically constituted strategy for coping with its discontents."<ref>Goodstein, Elizabeth S. 2005. Experience Without Qualities: Boredom and Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 3.</ref> In both conceptions, boredom has to do fundamentally with an experience of time—such as experiencing the slowness of time—and problems of meaning.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-07-17 |title=Boredom |url=https://www.hisour.com/boredom-35933/ |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=HiSoUR – Hi So You Are |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Weiss |first1=Emily R. |last2=Todman |first2=McWelling |last3=Pazar |first3=Özge |last4=Mullens |first4=Sophia |last5=Maurer |first5=Kristin |last6=Romano |first6=Alexandra C. |title=When Time Flies: State and Trait Boredom, Time Perception, and Hedonic Task Appraisals |date=2021-04-30 |url=https://psyct.swu.bg/index.php/psyct/article/view/559 |journal=Psychological Thought |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=150–174 |doi=10.37708/psyct.v14i1.559 |s2cid=236539890 |issn=2193-7281|doi-access=free }}</ref>
